[Spaceships] Crews for exploration

[Agemegos]

What's a cost-effective design for spaceships of which the purpose is to conduct an exploration under the procedures set out in GURPS Spaceships 5?

What is a good complement of personnel for carrying out the "Planetary Exploration" and "First Contact" tasks in Chapter Two of Spaceships 5?

In my setting the space within ~150 light-years of Sol was initially settled by a means that required an enormous, expensive, effectively-immobile "flinger" to propel a ship in a stasis bubble at lightspeed. 640-odd colonies were founded, mostly by cranks before Earth was rendered uninhabitable and nearly everyone in the Solar System killed by a lab accident. The colonies developed independently for three hundred and some years until FTL ships were invented. Colonies near Sol were old and populous and some of them became rich. Colonies further away tended to be underdeveloped and underpopulated; most of them struggled.

When FTL ships were invented they first brought colonies back into contact with each other, and enormous gains from trade. But some operators used them unscrupulously, for conquest, invasion, raiding, religious proselytisation, and reckless disregard for quarantine. The inventor, immensely rich, put his money into controlling the abuse of his invention. The most unscrupulous abuser, feeling threatened, destroyed the planet the inventor lived on. Billions died and the survivors lost all sense of proportion. They attempted to impose control on interstellar travel; the planets with high-enough tech to make FTL ships resisted; decades of war in space ensued, with the 'Foundation' funding its efforts by the profits of commerce in the middle-distances from Sol and the rich colonies essentially besieged on their planets. Nearly everyone was ruined, financially.

The war ended with an agreement between the Foundation and the leading colonies to found the Empire. The Foundation (now an arm of the Empire) redeployed its transport resources to the core for maximum profit, and spent thirty years rebuilding its industries and expanding its fleet. Now at last it has more shipping capacity than be put to good use in the Core, and is contemplating a commercial return to the mid-distance and eventually an expansion in to the periphery.

The first essay in this direction was to send a naval vessel out on a Survey mission. Unfortunately the naval crew catastrophically bungled a first contact operation. The Imperial Council has, therefore, decided to put together some expert teams, build them special ships, and make sure that the next 600 contact operations are done right.

The Empire has three interests in the periphery.

1. The most important and urgent is to discover anyone who might be using FTL drives and to sit on him hard, without allowing him an opportunity to get away.
2. The second objective is to bring what aid might be possible to any colony in the periphery where people are suffering preventable mass deaths, as in war, famine, or plague.
3. The third is to establish interstellar trade, collect phat fares and freight charges, and realise fabulous profits for funding (1) and (2) above.

The mission in contemplation is a "quick hard look" at each system to collect enough information to guide the allocation of resource in future efforts. The Imperial Council and secretariat want to know what its opportunities are, and the nature, scale, and urgency of problems it ought to deal with in the next five to 25 years.

At this stage the Empire is rather smaller and less well-funded than in other campaigns set later in the same setting. It covers sixty worlds or so, hard of them at Ultra-Tech levels of development. It has about 15 million personnel. Imperial Spaceways and Universal Imports are coining profits by the bushel but scream their heads off at any suggestion that these be diverted from building ships and shipyards. The Navy has been sitting on its hands for 35 years and wants mission now. A bunch of long-haired bleeding hearts in the Senate and Imperial Council are talking of bringing large-scale foreign aid to about 600 planets, of four hundred of which nothing is known except for who set out there from Earth six centuries ago.

Lacking unnumbered professional staff and bottomless funds, whom do you have to send on a survey mission? What sort of ship do you wrap around them?


When I first ran this campaign Survey frigates carried only 37 personnel including a naval crew, a 4-person diplomatic team, four Imperial Marines in case of emergencies, and fewer than twenty very versatile explorers. Pressure is on that a much larger outfit, with at least a whole platoon of Marines, would be scarcely adequate. Opinions?

[Adina]

Well the most important thing is to come back. So the ship should be fast enough to run home and have sufficient defenses to survive to do so. It doesn't need the offensive weaponry of a dedicated warship but should have enough to discourage piratical sorts. And to provide fire support for a landing party whose mission has gone pear-shaped.

(Its likely to be a gawd-awful compromise design anyway. I'm sure the Navy, the Foreign Office and intelligence services (at least) all have their own set of priorities.)

37 looks to be the right order of magnitude. I got 36 with 8 marines for my Pathfinder-class. Using Spaceships, moving up from SM+9 to SM+10 roughly triples that, giving you a little over 100 people on board.

I am not sure that there is really much difference to having a squad, a platoon, or a company of Marines if you are dealing with any sizable part of a hostile planetary population. It strikes me that you probably want either a fire team or a squad as honor guard/protection detail for each separate landing party with another 1-2 as a reserve or quick reaction force. The number and size of landing shuttles is a significant factor here.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by jmurrell

I am not sure that there is really much difference to having a squad, a platoon, or a company of Marines if you are dealing with any sizable part of a hostile planetary population. It strikes me that you probably want either a fire team or a squad as honor guard/protection detail for each separate landing party with another 1-2 as a reserve or quick reaction force. The number and size of landing shuttles is a significant factor here.

There's not much difference in terms of fighting a war, no. On the other hand, with less than a platoon, you can't realistically carry out regular bodyguarding duties at more than one location and even your one location will be covered by a very light fire team actually on duty.

You need at least three full watches for 24/7 coverage and you might need extra bodies to account for injuries, sickness and whatever else you want your marines doing. So just to ensure that you can have a squad/section of alert marines on duty all the time, you'd need a platoon.

In order not to overload the vessel with marines that aren't contributing to the actual mission in anything but a passive capacity it would probably be best to restrict the role of the marines rather sharply. Send enough so that if it comes to it, they can lift the ground team out, but accept that they'll be unable to baby-sit scientists full time.

Train your ground team in survival and such things. Maybe send along a couple of marines with the ground team that actually can contribute to the mission as well as being a security element. Maybe an enlisted marine who is a master survivalist and low-tech gadget enthusiastic and an marine officer with a PhD in a field useful to first-contact specialists.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Icelander

In order not to overload the vessel with marines that aren't contributing to the actual mission in anything but a passive capacity it would probably be best to restrict the role of the marines rather sharply. Send enough so that if it comes to it, they can lift the ground team out, but accept that they'll be unable to baby-sit scientists full time.

That's right. Explorers, anthropologists and so forth have to get by without full-time bodyguards, especially with shipping capacity as scarce as it is. There is no use concentrating geologists and oceanographers and anthropologists and agronomists and economists in a camp that can easily be defended: if they don't have to be actually all over the place then they might as well be in orbit. And individually guarding little knots of two and three 24/7 is going to leave you ended up with more bodyguards than explorers. If the work is anything like dangerous enough that that is a reasonable precaution then you need a different approach.

[cosmicfish]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Lacking unnumbered professional staff and bottomless funds, whom do you have to send on a survey mission? What sort of ship do you wrap around them?

Well, obviously you need to look at your mission crew first. Divide them into teams:

Originally Posted by Agemegos

[*] The most important and urgent is to discover anyone who might be using FTL drives and to sit on him hard, without allowing him an opportunity to get away.

Space Control Team. This implies sensors, force projection in space, and a military attaché to lay the groundwork (so to speak) for ongoing ops.

Sensors: You need dedicated FTL sensors, better than usual for a ship that size, and a dedicated crew to operate and maintain them. Note that they should be separate from the sensors used for navigating the ship! Numbers: 3 operators per sensor (for round the clock operation), plus perhaps 1 technician for every 3-4, so a minimum of 3 total.

Force Projection: Could be the ship itself, armed for combat, or it could be an on-board squadron of fighters (I would recommend at least 12, to allow for a constant CSP (Combat Space Patrol) of 2-4 fighters with the ability to launch a full squadron as needed). Numbers: Extremely variable depending on the expected opposition. At least a weapons officer, a few gunners, and a weapons tech, but all of them could be on the ship's regular crew so a minimum of 0 total.

Attaché: A few naval and army/marine officers, along with a couple of enlisted support staff, all trained to evaluate the size of force needed to patrol the region and negotiate an appropriate base of operations. Numbers: At a minimum, a naval officer already on the ship crew can assess the ongoing naval needs, a marine or army officer on staff can address site security issues, and diplomatic staff can be borrowed from other teams, so this could potentially be a secondary task with 0 total permanent staff.

Originally Posted by Agemegos

[*] The second objective is to bring what aid might be possible to any colony in the periphery where people are suffering preventable mass deaths, as in war, famine, or plague.

Humanitarian Aid Team. There will be a few things they can do immediately, but big problems will require a resident staff.

War: You already have some military force in your Space Control Team, but they are focused on space, while this is likely to be more of a ground issue. A few officers able to make tactical and strategic suggestions on the use of the ship's weapons, along with a few diplomats focused on peace negotiations. Numbers: It is unlikely that you have a genuine army officer on staff already, or a competent peace negotiator, so adding a single administrative assistant gets you a minimum of 3 total.

Agriculture: A handful of scientists and perhaps a few educators - there is really no solution to this that is ship-portable, other than a supply of seed stock and some expert analysis and instruction. Numbers: Call it two agricultural scientists at minimum: 2 total.

Public Health: A research team of doctors and nurses to identify medical solutions, a few pharmacists and chemists to formulate and compound medicines, and a team of educators and public health specialists to instruct the populace on how to improve conditions and manufacture medicine. Numbers: I would suggest 2 doctors, 2 nurses, a pharmacist, a chemist, and a public health specialist beyond the regular ship staff, for a minimum of 7 total.

Originally Posted by Agemegos

[*] The third is to establish interstellar trade, collect phat fares and freight charges, and realise fabulous profits for funding (1) and (2) above.

Commerce and Trade Team. This can be a pretty small group, simply because their job is really just to pave the way for a resident trade enclave that will actually do this job on an ongoing basis. A few diplomats specializing in trade and taxation, along with a few administrators and lawyers to hammer out details. Numbers: At least one diplomat, one administrative expert (to plan out the bureaucracy), one lawyer, and one administrative aide to assist, so a minimum of 4 total.

By my count that is at least 19 staff beyond the actual crew. I would recommend a squad of 8-12 Marines to provide a minimum of on-ship and diplomatic security, and then the crew of the ship - which I cannot give recommendations on because the ship depends on the type of vessels you expect to be able to handle one-on-one. So whatever that is, add at least 27!

[Anthony]

I suggest the age-old tradition of scouting: send something small, fast, and expendable. Ideally, send two so one can come back if the other one gets blown up or spots something that needs someone to sit and watch. If it doesn't return, you've found an enemy (how exactly this works depends on the specifics of the FTL drive). Don't bother with humanitarian aid, that's for the followup mission. Don't bother with any extensive first contact, though you can say "hi". Don't bother with military force, that's for the followup mission.

[Adina]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

The first essay in this direction was to send a naval vessel out on a Survey mission. Unfortunately the naval crew catastrophically bungled a first contact operation. The Imperial Council has, therefore, decided to put together some expert teams, build them special ships, and make sure that the next 600 contact operations are done right.
The mission in contemplation is a "quick hard look" at each system to collect enough information to guide the allocation of resource in future efforts. The Imperial Council and secretariat want to know what its opportunities are, and the nature, scale, and urgency of problems it ought to deal with in the next five to 25 years.

So with 600 systems to look at, even if each ship can visit 10 -15 worlds the Empire needs 40-60 ships and personnel to crew them. That argues for a relatively small design. However

The Empire has three interests in the periphery.

[1] The most important and urgent is to discover anyone who might be using FTL drives and to sit on him hard, without allowing him an opportunity to get away.

Which argues for a bigger, militarily potent ship which is more expensive and probably takes more time and shipyard resources. Or else a small, fast ship that if it does contact someone with FTL it bugs out and lets the big boys come and do the talking.

[2] The second objective is to bring what aid might be possible to any colony in the periphery where people are suffering preventable mass deaths, as in war, famine, or plague.
[3] The third is to establish interstellar trade, collect phat fares and freight charges, and realise fabulous profits for funding (1) and (2) above.

Which sounds like the planetology/geology/meteorology studies are going to be fairly minimal. Just enough to assess the availability of natural resources most likely. And hopefully any inhabited planet will already have figured this stuff out.

The socio-economic side however is where the main scientific effort will need to be.

I don't think there is much call for a trade team, trade agreements seem like something to be worked later. However the diplomatic mission is to make sure that there is a later, and that its friendly.

Humanitarian Aid is also something that comes later. The survey ship can't solve many problems itself but it needs to identify what the problems are. Back to the socio-economic survey again.

[Adina]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

That's right. Explorers, anthropologists and so forth have to get by without full-time bodyguards, especially with shipping capacity as scarce as it is.

So select people who can take care of themselves and expect them to do so. And if they can't well, the needs of the many... ,next of kin will collect benefits.

So then how many Marines? If the expectation is for a reaction force available 24/7 then you need at least 3 such units and probably 4 to allow for attrition and other mission needs. Probably the minimum such unit is a fire team. Which means 4 teams or two sections (8 men/2 teams per section IIRC). If that's too small then you need a large 4 section platoon. So are the situations that a team of 4 Marines in TL10 battlesuits with at least half a dozen drones and a heavy weapons bot can't handle but a full section could likely enough to be worth carrying twice the number of Marines instead of other survey personnel?
Or can the Marine contingent fill in for part of the navy crew onboard ship? Shuttle crews maybe?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I suggest the age-old tradition of scouting: send something small, fast, and expendable. Ideally, send two so one can come back if the other one gets blown up or spots something that needs someone to sit and watch. If it doesn't return, you've found an enemy (how exactly this works depends on the specifics of the FTL drive). Don't bother with humanitarian aid, that's for the followup mission. Don't bother with any extensive first contact, though you can say "hi". Don't bother with military force, that's for the followup mission.

I believe I agree with Anthony here.

Jmurrell has a fine list of people who _might_ be needed but if you send them out blind they're going to end up going to a lot of places some or all of them _aren't_ needed.

So you send a scout ship first to gather enough data to make an informed decision of who is going to be needed in the system.

Cal it m a crew of 8. there are 3 watchstanders/bridge crew. If the system isn't empty they're going to watch the automated sensors gather data. First from the system fringe then closer in and possibly from planetary orbit if there's anyplace worth looking at that isn't going to shoot at you for doing so.

Then there are 3 grease monkeys/techs/engineers. You have 1 per shift like the watchstanders. They do routine maintnence and there's always one on duty in case of whatever technobabble emergency can or will possibly occur.

Add a doctor or at least an semi-advanced nurse-practitioner to handle whatever can/will happen to the crew.

Last is a Captain who might be more senior than his humble command might indicate. He's there to make decisions about when to gather more data and when to hightail it back to base.

No projection of power, no first contact unless they find you first. Nothing but gathering of data and carrying back to base so a properly set-up follow-up mission can be sent.

Try SM+7. 3 armors, 5 habitats, 1 bridge, 1 engine room, 1 enhanced sensors, 2 real space drives for above average speed, 2 Stardrives for the same, 1 power plants (fusion with 2 pp assumed), 31 cargoes and 1 point defense weapon.

The Captain has a semi-luxury cabin that doubles as his office. The Medical officer has single occupancy right next to a small sick/bay/emergency station. The other 3 habs are 2 cabine each for the rest of the crew.

<counts on fingers> Yeah, that adds up to 20.

[Adina]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

So you send a scout ship first to gather enough data to make an informed decision of who is going to be needed in the system.

True but:

(1) Partly depends on FTL travel times, if it takes a long time to go out and back and out again it may be worth having the might-needs along.

(2) Not much scope for a RP group there.

No projection of power, no first contact unless they find you first. Nothing but gathering of data and carrying back to base so a properly set-up follow-up mission can be sent.

Isn't much fun.